Competitive effects of introduced annual weeds on some native and reclamation species in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming

Technical Report · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1980

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5371689· OSTI ID:5371689

Allen, E. B.; Knight, D. H.

Four experiments were conducted to examine the competitive effects of introduced annual weeds on certain native and reclamation species. The first experiment was initiated by discing three sites in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming, at three distances from introduced weed seed sources. Introduced weed colonization was greatest when a seed source was located nearby. Higher weed cover resulted in reductions of percent cover, density, and richness of the native species. The second experiment was conducted in the greenhouse and was designed to determine if there are changes in response of S. kali and the native grasses Agropyron smithii and Bouteloua gracilis to competition and water regime. Both grass species had lower biomass and higher stomatal resistance when growing in mixed culture with S. kali than in pure culture in the dry regime, but there were no significant differences in the wet regime. In general, the difference in plant response between mixed and pure cultures was more pronounced in the dry than in the wet regime. The third study was a greenhouse experiment on germination and competition of S. kali (a C/sub 4/ species) with native species Lepidium densiflorum (C/sub 3/), Chenopodium pratericola (C/sub 3/), A. smithii (C/sub 3/), and B. gracilis (C/sub 4/) under May, June, and July temperature regimes. Salsola kali germinated equally well in all three regimes, but the other C/sub 4/ species had highest germination in the July regime and the C/sub 3/ species in the May and June regimes. The fourth study was designed to examine the effect of weed colonization on the success of mine reclamation. Little effect was observed, but colonization by introduced annuals was very low. (ERB)

• Research Organization: Wyoming Univ., Laramie (USA). Dept. of Botany
• DOE Contract Number: AS02-78EV04963
• OSTI ID: 5371689
• Report Number(s): DOE/EV/04963-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES
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BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPETITION
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